Metal Is Target For Thieves

Rise In Price Of Scrap Results In A Surge Of Brazen Ripoffs

July 07, 2008|By ANN MARIE SOMMA; Courant Staff Writer

Thieves have stolen everything from empty beer kegs and catalytic converters to aluminum Little League bleachers and fountain fixtures - basically anything made of metal that can be grabbed and carted off to scrap metal yards.

Parishioners worshipping on Easter weekend at the All Hallows Church in Plainfield learned first-hand just how brazen metal thieves can be: A member of the congregation heard a noise, looked outside and saw a man making off with a 30-foot length of copper gutter pipe that he'd taken from a tower in front of the church.

"These people don't have any respect of the sacred. This building is special, it is the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus," said Wojciech Kowalski, the pastor of All Hallows Church.

The price of copper, aluminum and bronze have risen so high that police departments in the state have seen thieves cut off catalytic converters from cars and rip off vacant homes for copper pipes.

The surge in thievery, which began about two years ago, is driven in part by the rising demand for scrap metal in China, India and Russia. Copper - the king of the base metals - is fetching about $2.80 a pound, up from $1.50 a pound two years ago. The price of metals, mainly copper, has risen in part due to the weak dollar and inflation. Even though copper fell the most last week in more than a month as the dollar and other currencies rebounded, it still remains high.

Neither public nor private property has been spared.In March, someone stole 32 bronze nozzles and eight bronze light fixtures from a fountain on the New Haven Green.

During the Memorial Day weekend, someone stole copper piping that connected the outside air-conditioning unit at Waterbury's Silas Bronson Library.

On Monday, Kevin Sperry arrived at work at the Stanley P. Rockwell Co. in Hartford and noticed that a barrel with 200 pounds of copper was missing from the commercial heat-treating company.

Over the weekend, industrious thieves had broken out a window at the Homestead Avenue factory, entered the building and scooped out the half-inch-tall pieces of copper with a pan and emptied them into a barrel outside.

They had started to fill a garbage can with copper wiring they dumped outside the window, but something or someone interrupted their labors.

"The thievery is out of control. The stealing is going on all over the place in an out-of-control city," said Kevin Sperry, a co-owner of the company.

Beer distributors are asking the state Liquor Control Commission for help because empty beer kegs are routinely stolen from package stores and restaurants and sold for scrap.

"It's a terrible problem," said Edward Crowley, president of DiChello Distributors, a beer wholesaler in Orange. "Not only are we losing out, the retailers are losing out on their deposits, [and] our employees are losing commission to pick up the kegs. The only ones making out [are] the people who are stealing them."

Many believe the thefts will continue unless the economy improves.

"As the economy gets worse, I guarantee this crime will get worse," said Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran, whose department arrested, earlier this year, a man who stole two aluminum loading docks from the Bed Bath & Beyond on the Silas Deane Highway.

State Sen. Thomas Colapietro championed legislation that takes effect in October that fines scrap metal and junkyard dealers up to $500,000 for buying stolen metals and historical artifacts.

The penalty is part of an existing law that requires scrap dealers to take down license plates of anyone bringing in metal to sell, and to record what they brought.

"People will steal it as long as they have a place to sell it," Colapietro said.

Joseph Miller, who runs Miller Recycling Corp. in Hartford, said he complies with existing law and takes down license plates of sellers.

He said he has cooperated with police and turned over his receipt books, but trying to determine what is stolen is difficult.

"You can't accuse somebody of being a crook just because the stuff looks stolen," Miller said.

Miller said only in rare situations has he turned down stuff because he thought it was stolen.

"Scrap is not like someone stealing a car with a VIN number. It's hard to determine if it's stolen. It's scrap, it could be new and still be scrap," Miller said.